Shanta Roy Sanjeev, marketing head, Haier India, feels that consumers tend to buy products, when limited period offers are up for grabs, which help increase sales.

Rate this news:
(0 Votes)

Friday, April 20, 2012:
With the summer season setting in, consumers look forward to buying air conditioners and refrigerators to beat the heat. As the demand of these products increase during this season, companies are normally seen offering discounts to attract customers. Unique limited time period offers do play a part in attracting customers, but how helpful are they for the companies in terms of profits and sales? We speak to Shanta Roy Sanjeev, marketing head, Haier India, to know how the sales of Haier India are set to increase with respect to the special offers for consumers this season.

Can you tell us about any offers or discounts that you have introduced recently or are planning to introduce on Haier's range of air-conditioners and refrigerators?

With the compressor season being at its peak, we expect sales to go up naturally. However, our customers are special and to make our products affordable, we offer consumer finance with zero percent interest and easy EMIs with 12 months to 18 months payment tenure options for most of our product categories.

For refrigerators, apart from consumer finance, we’ve also floated special scheme/freebies, limited period consumer offer in select cities. These include microwavable container sets, wrist watches, etc.

How do you think these offers benefit your sales/profit?

Of late, price hikes have been a matter of concern for our customers. It would be a welcome gesture to offer some gifts with the purchase. Customers have also become smarter; they always appreciate value addition with the products they purchase. These days, different brands come with different offers to woo the customers.

We believe in making our customers’ shopping experience more exciting. From time to time, we come up with certain promotional schemes, which not only give value addition with the products but also helps position our company as a consumer friendly brand.

There has been a noted rise of 10 to 15 per cent in the sales with unique limited time period promotional schemes and offers.

How much do these offers actually help the business, especially during summers when the demand is at its peak?

This does not bring in much of a difference in need-based and seasonal products like air conditioners. Quality assurance is the key to influence purchase decision. However, India being a highly price-sensitive market, price offs and special schemes work at times.

But for refrigerators, it surely works. Refrigerator is no more a seasonal product, it is purchased round the year, these days. We also have certain promotional schemes for refrigerators.

How were the sales during this time last year? What figures are you expecting this year?

In the year 2011, sale for refrigerators was 4,10,000 units and we sold 94,000 units of air conditioners.

We expect a growth of 50 per cent in the refrigerator business and around 25 to 30 per cent growth in the AC segment.